don't get infested
|
|
# ? Oct 28, 2022 04:30 |
|
|
# ? May 28, 2024 02:41 |
|
If a bunch of clowns and magicians show up and start acting suspicious, hear them out.
|
# ? Oct 28, 2022 04:31 |
|
I'm fine. it was largely a bunch of people overreacting, so what started as them worrying i had COVID (I didn't) turned into them worried I was having a heart attack (I wasn't.) Plus, while i was there a bunch of people came by recruiting for a self-help group called The Sharing, so i plan to check them out. Chapter 15 quote:What can I say? So we have a potentially new Animorths team! and good on James for thinking of Pedro. Also, what's your thoughts about Cassie's speech? Chapter 16 quote:James assembled Collette, Timmy, and Kelly. Marco stood guard at the door to the small lounge. So that's the initial team....shocking, given that they and Pedro were the only ones we got names and descriptions for. I'm also not sure where the "morphing has been known to repair DNA comes from, especially given that after it's said, it;'s walked back. The only people we've seen healed by morphing are people who have non-genetic injuries.
|
# ? Oct 28, 2022 04:55 |
|
Glad you're feeling better. And the Sharing is pretty great! I mean, they did that beach cleanup a little while ago! Can't argue with local efforts to change the world like that!Epicurius posted:Chapter 15 Cassie remains the cruelest Animorphs, even more than the self proclaimed "ruthless master of strategy" Marco. She knows exactly what they need to hear to get with the program and is absolutely willing to drop the truth bomb that have to be dropped. Epicurius posted:Chapter 16 Yeah, looking at the context around the statement, this looks like a pretty blatant typo of something more like "The morphing process repairs using your DNA.". It's funky wording, but they have a very solid practical understanding of morphing works. Capfalcon fucked around with this message at 05:08 on Oct 28, 2022 |
# ? Oct 28, 2022 05:06 |
|
Epicurius posted:I'm fine. it was largely a bunch of people overreacting, so what started as them worrying i had COVID (I didn't) turned into them worried I was having a heart attack (I wasn't.) Plus, while i was there a bunch of people came by recruiting for a self-help group called The Sharing, so i plan to check them out. The Sharing sounds pretty neat though. I hear their beach parties are awesome. What's got me a bit bug-eyed at Pedro is well, how have they not gone to the obvious place of using other humans as decoy cover bodies? What about nohlits that stay in a cover body past the two hours? I feel like that's an issue that's either already been tackled and I missed it, or really should be tackled. Capfalcon posted:Cassie remains the cruelest Animorphs, even more than the self proclaimed "ruthless master of strategy" Marco. She knows exactly what they need to hear to get with the program and is absolutely willing to drop the truth bomb that have to be dropped.
|
# ? Oct 28, 2022 05:24 |
I stand by my earlier statement - Cassie would be the worst of them if not for her heart.
|
|
# ? Oct 28, 2022 05:31 |
|
Comrade Blyatlov posted:I stand by my earlier statement - Cassie would be the worst of them if not for her heart. "Worst" in what dimension?
|
# ? Oct 28, 2022 06:02 |
Look at it this way - she's the group's conscience, and she understands people. She understands what motivates them and how to get the best out of them. You take away her conscience and moral compass... And now she is the group's manipulator, twisting them towards her own ends. She understands their weaknesses and how to exploit them.
|
|
# ? Oct 28, 2022 06:12 |
|
i would amend it to "cassie could be the worst of them, due to her heart," if her ability to care is the thing that facilitates that harm. two sides of that same coin
|
# ? Oct 28, 2022 11:09 |
|
mind the walrus posted:What's got me a bit bug-eyed at Pedro is well, how have they not gone to the obvious place of using other humans as decoy cover bodies? What about nohlits that stay in a cover body past the two hours? I feel like that's an issue that's either already been tackled and I missed it, or really should be tackled. It sort of was, although not entirely, when David morphed Jake's cousin Sadler's body and then killed him. Going nothlit was his plan, at least, if the Animorphs hadn't figured it out. it hasn't come up much with the Animorphs themselves, because they've, for the most part, stuck to not acquiring morphs from unwilling sentients. The only time they really broke that was on the aircraft carrier. Other than that, though, the only fully sentient morphs they have are from free Hork-Bajir who consented.
|
# ? Oct 29, 2022 04:11 |
|
Chapter 17quote:The pigeon would give everyone an unobtrusive transit morph. Like our own seagull morphs. Carefully we explained the acquiring trance and then how the actual morphing process would feel. They're a team, right? Chapter 18 quote:It was a long night. The thing I'll say is that, Ax's prejudices notwithstanding, he makes some points here. First that, the new Animorphs don't have any real combat skills, and there might not be time to train them, and when they're demorphed, most of them are not necessarily going to be able to make a run for it. He also makes the probably more uncomfortable point that a lot of Americans still aren't comfortable with the physically disabled or able to see beyond their disability. While society has come a long way since the 60s and the Independent Living movement, there's still a long way to go.(and while Andalite society isn't free of those prejudices, Marco is still living in a glass house here when he criticizes Ax.
|
# ? Oct 29, 2022 04:24 |
|
Colette totally likes Marco. Interestingly, James is going to have to really hide his now-strong legs from caregivers. He seems fairly independent and probably washes with only mechanical assistance, but examination of atrophied limbs would be pretty part and parcel of routine care to make sure they didn't miss any wounds or pressure sores that could get infected.
|
# ? Oct 29, 2022 09:39 |
|
Chapter 19quote:Ax handed Jake a printout. <I have located another facility.> So, sure, there's the moral question about using kids to fight, as we've talked about, but is it a special problem that these are disabled kids? Everybody we've met seems reasonably intelligent, and they did make the choice themselves. Chapter 20 quote:The school for the blind was easy to infiltrate. Fifteen-minute surveillance, during which we located the dormitory floor. Putting inside the tragedy of the chapter, Tom's Yeerk knows that Yeerks can leave their hosts, right? You could stick the two most important Yeerks in Jale's parent's heads, and as long as they leave, Visser One can kill the parents with no cost other than the inconvenience of finding them two new hosts.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 04:25 |
|
Epicurius posted:Chapter 19 While I ultimately agree that giving them a clear choice is a fair thing to do, it does still feel a bit like taking advantage of them, as vulnerable people being offered a way out of their current predicament at great risk. It's not exactly the same, but it reminds me of why you can't offer experimental medicine to people who would otherwise be likely of dying. Chronic illness/disability isn't exactly the same, but you're offering a potential cure/temporary escape at the cost of a significant risk to their life. Epicurius posted:Chapter 20 True, but if you need them to just stand around and be hostages, then you don't need anyone important. Also, Visser One doesn't seem like the patient "Ok, please evacuate your current host so I can chop their heads off to prove a point to the Animorphs leader" type.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 04:40 |
I'm sure I don't need to point out the parallels with the Hork-Bajir Chronicles, right? God, these books are good.
|
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 04:46 |
|
Capfalcon posted:True, but if you need them to just stand around and be hostages, then you don't need anyone important. Also, Visser One doesn't seem like the patient "Ok, please evacuate your current host so I can chop their heads off to prove a point to the Animorphs leader" type. Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've already seen the Yeerks demonstrate they like being able to kill two birds with one stone that way.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 05:41 |
|
Capfalcon posted:While I ultimately agree that giving them a clear choice is a fair thing to do, it does still feel a bit like taking advantage of them, as vulnerable people being offered a way out of their current predicament at great risk. It's not exactly the same, but it reminds me of why you can't offer experimental medicine to people who would otherwise be likely of dying. Chronic illness/disability isn't exactly the same, but you're offering a potential cure/temporary escape at the cost of a significant risk to their life. Yeah, this is my thoughts too. Admittedly militaries throughout history have targeted vulnerable people for recruitment (particularly the poor, but depending on the nation also racial, ethnic or religious minorities) for as long as there have been armies but it feels even worse here. I think recruiting kids at all is the real monstrous part, though.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 06:01 |
|
It is refreshing to see antagonists with half a brain who notice a pattern and act on it, even if it is really upsetting to see the kids in this much peril. And yeah it is so, so loving hosed up the way they're going about this.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 06:57 |
|
Capfalcon posted:While I ultimately agree that giving them a clear choice is a fair thing to do, it does still feel a bit like taking advantage of them, as vulnerable people being offered a way out of their current predicament at great risk. It's not exactly the same, but it reminds me of why you can't offer experimental medicine to people who would otherwise be likely of dying. Chronic illness/disability isn't exactly the same, but you're offering a potential cure/temporary escape at the cost of a significant risk to their life. The thing is, their lives are already at significant risk. Every human being's is. (Moreso, actually, for the kind of people the Yeerks will just kill rather than infest - at least if you're infested but still alive in Jake's vision of a future dystopian New York, there's always hope of revolution and freedom one day). Or as Ripley puts it in Alien 3: Your asses are already on the line . The question is, what are you gonna do about it? Cassie was bang on about James not considering his friends' agency when he flat-out rejects them, and Cassie's dad does the same thing as James here: quote:“There’s always a choice,” my father said angrily. There is, and it is the choice that was presented to James and his friends. Epicurius posted:The thing I'll say is that, Ax's prejudices notwithstanding, he makes some points here. First that, the new Animorphs don't have any real combat skills, and there might not be time to train them, and when they're demorphed, most of them are not necessarily going to be able to make a run for it. He also makes the probably more uncomfortable point that a lot of Americans still aren't comfortable with the physically disabled or able to see beyond their disability. While society has come a long way since the 60s and the Independent Living movement, there's still a long way to go.(and while Andalite society isn't free of those prejudices, Marco is still living in a glass house here when he criticizes Ax. Ax's actually sort of has the moral high ground here: Andalite society excludes "vecols" but is straight up about it, whereas what he's criticising here is human society's hypocrisy on the issue rather than our treatment of the disabled per se. On a separate note, I had completely forgotten this scene and it's a great moment for Jake and Tom to come face to face again. Along with watching him morph to falcon in the driveway it's gotta be a bittersweet moment for Tom himself: yes, you're a slave and now your parents are too, but your own brother is free and fighting back. In his shoes I would be incredibly, immensely proud of my little brother. And also lol at Tom's Yeerk's temper tantrum: quote:When we were in the hallway, Tom closed the door behind us. Then he turned and struck Jake savagely across the face. “My host’s own brother!” Jake reeled and a Hork-Bajir caught him. Propped him up. Tom struck him again. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me? All that time we were searching for you. Looking for Andalites. And it was you! Right there in my own house. Right down the hall. I could have killed you a million times! Visser One almost starved me to death for my stupidity.” "He saw it all - my own blood bag driving the war rig!"
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 23:17 |
|
Why didn't Visser Three/One kill him? I find it hard to believe he wouldn't immediately get so pissed that he'd kill him in a heartbeat.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 23:25 |
|
Visser Three/One is moody as hell but I imagine he's got a network of handlers to help get people that piss him off out of line of sight long enough for him to calm down. That's probably what happened when the Yeerk got starved.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 23:33 |
|
Honestly its more surprising he didn't lop off one of Tom's arms. That was his go-to move for a while.
|
# ? Oct 30, 2022 23:36 |
|
Chapter 21quote:When they’d gone I moved from my still place above the door. I had to get to a window, get out, demorph! With the crazy, zigzagging, up-and-down antics of the fly I made it to a hall window. Zipped through a narrow opening, down to the ground. They're game, at least. Chapter 22 quote:A concrete ramp led toward the loading dock and the wide metal garage door. There we go! The first part of this has gone great.
|
# ? Oct 31, 2022 03:37 |
|
You can tell Ax is pissed off when he inflicts not just a de-handing but a de-arming
|
# ? Oct 31, 2022 04:57 |
|
Very interesting to see what morphs the new kids choose. Rattlesnake and bobcat struck me as kind of small for battle morphs, but rattlesnakes don't have to directly fight and we saw that a bobcat can at least match up against a human-controller. I've also wondered how good a crocodile would be since it seems to lack some reach but I might just be underestimating it.
|
# ? Oct 31, 2022 07:22 |
|
A rattlesnake would probably be the only thing that survives if the Yeerks finally wise up and install a machine gun on top of Visser One's limo. Incidentally, this is also their first real fight when the Yeerks know who they are and they can directly talk to them. Re: Ax. To be honest I'd love to read this book from his perspective. He must be sick of this human nonsense.
|
# ? Oct 31, 2022 07:31 |
|
dungeon cousin posted:I've also wondered how good a crocodile would be since it seems to lack some reach but I might just be underestimating it. Aaaaaand now I really want to see one get into it with a Taxxon.
|
# ? Oct 31, 2022 23:47 |
|
A bobcat makes sense for tight urban spaces. You trade the sheer brute strength of a larger cat like a lion or tiger for being more maneuverable. Kind of disappointed nobody picked a hippo as a battle morph.
|
# ? Nov 1, 2022 00:31 |
|
Taking a break tonight, as I've been ambushed by Yeerks in what everyone thought would be a routine mission to the School for the Blind. Chapters tomorrow, and then on Wednesday, we should be finishing up this book!
|
# ? Nov 1, 2022 04:15 |
|
I feel like a crocodile on dry land is not a good pick... I'm pretty sure they can put on a good burst of speed but only for about 20 metres or so, at the end of the day they're aquatic animals and aren't going to cope well in the various loading docks, warehouses, and other industrial spaces the Animorphs are always getting up to hijinks in.
|
# ? Nov 1, 2022 05:21 |
They're tough as all gently caress though. You could do worse.
|
|
# ? Nov 1, 2022 05:39 |
|
I think it's really just so you can tell which character is which with the different animals.
|
# ? Nov 1, 2022 06:04 |
|
Probably okay for the heat of battle but not for the quick withdrawals, smash-and-bash raid kind of stuff they do. A bear and a tiger and a gorilla can cover ground retreating in a way a croc can't. (Aside from choice of battle morph, I think a crocodile has a legitimate claim to being the ~Perfect Organism~ because it's basically the only big predator unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs, must be doing something right.)
|
# ? Nov 1, 2022 06:06 |
|
I feel like you could add sharks and dragonflies, and honestly? As long as there's no super mega huge mass extinction I could see felines, big or small, stick around. -this message has been approved by Visser 1
|
# ? Nov 1, 2022 12:06 |
|
Chapter 23quote:Teamwork seemed to come easily to the new Animorphs. This was a good thing. At least Visser One got to say "Andalite scum!". i know how much he likes that. (i was going to make a "Beef. It's what's for dinner" joke", but it would be in bad taste.. Well, great taste, really. Still, i'll let you imagine the Taxxons settling down to eat while Copland's Hoe-Down plays.) Chapter 24 quote:Visser One was now a giant squidlike creature. A fat body covered with gleaming black scales. Raw red eyes bulged from dark flesh. Twenty massive, spike-covered tentacles whirled and cracked in the air like bullwhips. Doesn't look good for our heroes. Epicurius fucked around with this message at 04:41 on Nov 2, 2022 |
# ? Nov 2, 2022 04:38 |
|
Epicurius posted:
I'm guessing this might have gotten written, or rewritten, by different authors. A previous chapter just pointed out Tobias morphed, not demorphed, to heal. But this chapter seems to have forgotten that hawk is his actual form, and gets it backwards.
|
# ? Nov 2, 2022 06:45 |
|
I was about to be pedantic about that too, only because it keeps showing up. Also, as we approach the end of the series: kudos to the Visser for consistently keeping it fresh with his battle morphs. The Animorphs always charge in with the boring same-old-same-old, but that rear end in a top hat mixes it up every single time.
|
# ? Nov 2, 2022 08:58 |
|
I wonder if the Yeerks know all of the human Animorphs' identities at this point. Clearly Visser One is caught off guard by all the new recruits in this battle, but they know Jake's identity by now, and they should know Tobias' identity as well unless they are completely incompetent. Logic of checking Jake's close contacts should lead to Chapman or someone else at the school realizing that Rachel and Cassie and their families are missing. I suppose Marco and the Chee faked his death so they could genuinely not know that he's one of them. Not sure if they have any way of discerning Ax's identity. Would Visser One be able to realize that it has been the same Andalite he's been facing all this time, and that he's the only one? And while they may not have 100% certainty of how many Animorphs there are, surely it is not lost on them that pretty much every time there have been at most 6 fighters in every conflict over the years. very late edit: Well there was a camera at the school for the blind so the jig is 100% up for Cassie, Rachel, and Marco now anyways. JesusSinfulHands fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Nov 2, 2022 |
# ? Nov 2, 2022 13:03 |
|
JesusSinfulHands posted:I wonder if the Yeerks know all of the human Animorphs' identities at this point. Clearly Visser One is caught off guard by all the new recruits in this battle, but they know Jake's identity by now, and they should know Tobias' identity as well unless they are completely incompetent. Logic of checking Jake's close contacts should lead to Chapman or someone else at the school realizing that Rachel and Cassie and their families are missing. I suppose Marco and the Chee faked his death so they could genuinely not know that he's one of them. We can infer from the last book that they identified at least Jake and Tobias through blood samples. Cassie's parents being vets makes me think they're in close enough proximity to hospitals that they've probably had lab work done at some point. Rachel and Marco might have slipped under the radar though, since at the beginning of the series Jake and Rachel weren't particularly close. In retrospect, yeah they should have been switching up morphs every so often.
|
# ? Nov 2, 2022 14:52 |
|
|
# ? May 28, 2024 02:41 |
|
Rochallor posted:We can infer from the last book that they identified at least Jake and Tobias through blood samples. Cassie's parents being vets makes me think they're in close enough proximity to hospitals that they've probably had lab work done at some point. Rachel and Marco might have slipped under the radar though, since at the beginning of the series Jake and Rachel weren't particularly close. I would be certain they know everyone's identity. Even if they only got Jake and Tobias through blood, Tom's Yeerk would be very much aware that his aunt and cousins have disappeared, as has Jake's girlfriend and her family. Marco is the tricky one. They almost definitely know he was an Animorph, because a gorilla showed up when they tried to infest his father. But they went and shot him, and they have no clear evidence at this point that he somehow survived that. So they may believe he faked his death and just not know how, or they may believe there's a mystery sixth they haven't IDed yet.
|
# ? Nov 2, 2022 15:06 |